


It was the hottest day in August and we were heading for the sea

by pr_scatterbrain



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, Music RPF
Genre: Dysfunctional Relationships, M/M, implied self medication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-25
Updated: 2012-07-25
Packaged: 2017-11-10 11:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pr_scatterbrain/pseuds/pr_scatterbrain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“What’s broken can always be fixed; what’s fixed will always be broken.”</i> — Jens Lekman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It was the hottest day in August and we were heading for the sea

 

 

They meet at a party when someone comments that Jens is a better DJ than Pete. This obviously isn't true. Pete hasn't actually met the Jens in question, but Pete is an excellent DJ, everyone says so. The guy who disagrees, shrugs. It isn't an apology, but Pete decides to take it as one.

"That's awfully magnanimous of you," Gabe comments.

"It is," Pete agrees and then because assuming is easier than asking, Pete assumes the gangly guy manning the decks is the aforementioned Jens.

He is a pretty good DJ.

"Is he better than me?" Pete asks Gabe.

Gabe cocks his head to the side and listens. "Could be better."

Most things can be. That's the problem.

When Pete goes up to request a song, Jens blinks. "I don't know that band."

"You haven't heard of The Romantics?" Pete asks.

Jens shakes his head.

Pete doesn't know anyone who doesn't know The Romantics.

"What about, 'What I like about you'? Everyone knows that one."

"Sorry," Jens says. "I could play something else."

Pete shakes his head and walks away. Sometimes it's hard to quit while you're ahead.

Jens puts on some Scout Niblett.

 

 

Despite what some people say, Pete is a man with friends and thus he is never alone.

It is pure coincidence that by the end of the night he is to be found throwing up his new anti-anxiety pills over the side of the fire escape. Nothing more than that.

 

 

Every other weekend Pete does the "Dad Thing," inverted commas and all. Patrick tells him not to say that sort of thing aloud. Pete doesn't listen. He breaks into Patrick's phone and goes through his messages and oohs and ahhs over all the vivacious girls who are sending Patrick texts at all time of the day and night.

"One girl," Patrick corrects.

"One lady," Pete corrects, because he likes to be the sort of douche.

Patrick retrieves his phone and tries to punch Pete in the gut. Pete decides to go see Ryan. Pete likes Ryan. Ryan is Pete's sort of guy. It's only later when Ryan doesn't answer his phone, Pete remembers that hey, they aren't speaking to each other anymore.

Spencer is no help. "Ryan will talk to you when he's ready."

That doesn't help Pete when he went ahead and bought tickets to see that new exhibit at MOCA.

"It doesn't help me either," Spencer says before hanging up.

He sounds pissed. Pete thinks about it and yeah, Spencer has a right to feel that way when Ryan isn't talking to him either (but is bitching about him to any interviewer willing to sit down and listen to him for five minutes). But Pete's still out of pocket twenty five bucks.

 

 

If there is a moral of the story, it's that it is better to be out twenty five bucks than fifty, so Pete goes to MOCA alone. While checking in his coat he sees the guy from the party again. He's still gangly, but in the daylight he looks a little less put together than Pete would have expected, had he thought to expect something of Jens.

"Jens," he calls out.

The guy, Jens (Pete never actually found out for sure, but like that matters), turns at the sound of his name being called.

"We meet at that party, the one on the roof deck," Pete says. "Remember."

Jens nods slowly. "I remember."

That's about all it takes for Pete to go home with him. It isn't much but Pete's never pretended to be anything other than easy.

 

 

They never really end up doing anything or becoming anything to each other. Everyone knows Pete kisses and fucks and says stupid things. Sometimes Jens happens to be there.

"Right time, right place," Pete says on those occasions.

Jens nods. "At least this time around.

Pete doesn't know what that means. But Jens has a funny accent and says funny things. Pete sometimes laughs at him. If he wasn't already okay with being an arsehole, he'd feel like one around Jens.

 

 

Pete doesn't know what Jens is doing in LA. But Jens does not know either.

"Maybe I might record something?" he muses over pop tarts and midday cocktail's at Victoria's.

"Might be an idea," Victoria tells him. "It's been a while since you released anything."

Apparently they are friends. Or that's what they say. Victoria is Pete's token cool friend. (Z is Ryan's). She knows people. That is why Gabe and Pete like her so much. As such, Pete accepts that she and Jens are old friends even though he suspects they are not.

Jens nods thoughtfully. "That is true."

Victoria refills his glass. "I know."

 

 

Jens never ends up recording anything while in LA. (But that's just one of many facts).

 

 

Sometimes Jens comes over to play Pete's pianos. Then Pete makes the mistake of introducing him to Patrick.

"He's are tuned," Jens says, when Pete drops by to find the two of them sharing a piano bench and playing jazz standards on Patrick’s Steinway baby grand.

"Of course they are," Pete says somewhat sharply.

 

 

These are other facts that do not bear repeating: Pete has a new band, a new house, new everything.

This does not mean he doesn't miss the old.

"You can't live in two places at once," Jens reminds him once.

Pete wants to laugh. He can't manage to live in one place at a time.

 

 

"You're all wrong," Jens says at one point. From him, it sounds like an observation, not an insult. It could be though. Who knows? (Not Pete, that's for sure)

 

 

 


End file.
